Geanakoplos likes to phrase his commentary in terms of “cycles,” but in fact, general equilibrium forces him to posit separate and unconnected sequential states of equilibrium, driven in a Rube Goldberg fashion by the arbitrarily sequenced arrival of asset issuance→“news”→valuation. Each state along the way is in “equilibrium,” as defined by constrained optimization and market clearing. Because everything is always already in equilibrium, the only reason anything changes is the deus ex machina imposed from outside by the model builder.

Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis …, loc. 814